Special
by Jasmine Syms
Summary: After Back to the Barn. Pearl has a talk with Peridot about why she was so desperate to prove Pearl wasn't special.


**anyone following me waiting for an update for the lies we tell- pls don't kill me for posting this first i promise i'll update that within the week pinky swear**

 **this is just some trash i thought up during a 12 hour car ride (fun)**

 **i don't own steven universe or any of its characters**

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When working with Pearl, Peridot could see that she really did misjudge her. She was incredibly smart, and she couldn't help but be jealous of her. Just a Pearl, yet she could do all that.

She also found that she genuinely enjoyed working with her at times. Even though she felt a twinge of annoyance every time Pearl had a great idea because she should have thought of it first, she was trying to turn the disappointment in herself into appreciation for Pearl. It was starting to work moderately well.

Pearl stopped what she was doing for a moment. "I'll be right back, I have to tell the others to go take Steven home."

Peridot followed her. "I- uh- want to say goodbye to Steven."

They found Garnet and Steven playing basketball with Amethyst serving as the ball.

"Garnet, Amethyst, I think it's time you took Steven home. It's getting late."

Garnet stopped playing and went over to Pearl. "Are you sure you're fine alone with her?"

Peridot looked at the ground to avoid the look Garnet gave her.

Pearl gave a short laugh. "I think I can handle her."

"Alright." Garnet gave a small nod. "Steven, Amethyst, let's get going."

"Awwww! But we were having so much fun!" Steven pouted.

Garnet messed with his hair. "You gotta get to bed soon."

Pearl said goodnight to Steven and Peridot followed suit. They started walking back to the barn but Peridot started to turn around. "Hang on a second."

She went up to Garnet, who had already begun walking away. "Um, Garnet?" Peridot poked at her leg.

She stopped and gave a small sigh. "Yes, Peridot?"

"I- um- well, that piece of my limb extenders is under that thing you call a sink in the bathroom."

Garnet said nothing for a moment. "What am I supposed to do with this information?"

Peridot fidgeted. "Well, it's the only thing I care about."

Garnet crossed her arms, silently telling her to elaborate.

"Aren't you going to destroy it?"

Garnet crouched on one knee and put a hand on Peridot's shoulder. "This isn't Homeworld, Peridot. We're not going to destroy your things-" She noticed when Peridot gave a small glare at Amethyst. "The rest of your things when you act like a brat."

"Really?"

"Really." Garnet gave a small smile, then let it fall. "But if you ever treat Pearl like that again, I will destroy you."

Peridot swallowed. "Understood." She turned and walked away, back into the barn, where Pearl was waiting.

"What was that about?"

"Nothing. Nothing, it was nothing."

Pearl narrowed her eyes. "Okay… I guess we should get back to work. No sense wasting time."

"Yeah." Peridot agreed.

When a silence arose in their work, Pearl glanced at Peridot. She hesitated before speaking. "You know, today you almost sounded desperate to prove I was, well, an 'ordinary Pearl'"

"Yeah?"

"Well, I just wanted to ask if there was a reason other than your deeply ingrained stereotypes and hatred for the Crystal Gems."

Peridot mumbled something.

"What?"

"Excuses are meaningless. I have made an error, and nothing-"

"Well nothing's going to excuse you, of course, but it might help me understand you."

Peridot swallowed. "Well, I'm not used to being wrong. I had all the information I needed available to me, and I just- never expected that it was possible for the wrong information to be fed to me."

Pearl nodded.

"And-" Peridot started, but cut herself off. "Nevermind."

"And what?" Pearl raised an eyebrow.

"I guess it's just- I was jealous. I didn't find it fair how you could be special and I couldn't."

"Who says you can't be special?"

"Ha, see that's a long story you don't want to get involved in."

Pearl gestured for her to go on.

Peridot sighed. "Alright, so you may have noticed I'm a little obnoxious and, uh, overly egotistic sometimes."

Pearl laughed. "Sometimes?" Peridot glared at her for a moment before continuing. "So, anyway, back on Homeworld these weren't the ideal traits to have. At least, not for me. You know Peridots aren't that much higher up than Pearls, so I really made a mistake. I sort of- declared that I was just as good as any gem"

Pearl gave a small gasp. She could figure out where this was going. "You didn't."

Peridot nodded. "I sort of also tried to get the other Peridots to realize their potential, but none of them cared. I came to the conclusion that I was a special Peridot, different from the others, and that's when word got around to Yellow Diamond."

"What happened?"

"I was punished." Peridot looked down. "Consistently for about three of your earth 'years'"

"Not to be rude, but why did they go through all that trouble instead of-"

"Destroying me?" Peridot grimaced. "I was there at the right time, or the wrong time, depending on how you look at it. They didn't want to lose anyone valuable when they checked on the progress of the cluster, so I guess they figured I would make the perfect expendable gem. And it wasn't too much trouble for them, they didn't exactly have the important people on 'punishment duty', if you know what I mean." She gave Pearl a pointed look.

Her eyes widened. "Pearls?"

Peridot nodded. "Most of the time. Though I can't complain about that, at least the Pearls didn't get too creative. No offense."

Pearl nodded and for a while they went back to work, until Pearl finally said "I think you're special."

Peridot scoffed. "More like defective."

Pearl turned to look at her. "No, really, look at you. You're helping the Crystal Gems. How many Peridots can say that?"

"I'm only doing it to survive, and this happened after I managed to utterly fail a simple mission. And it's not like it's a good thing, as soon as I outlive my usefulness you'll probably just bubble me again or leave me for Yellow Diamond to find."

"You really think we'd do that?"

"Why wouldn't you? You hate me, the only reason I'm not still bubbled is that you finally believed that I had useful information, thanks to Steven."

Pearl paused, that was true. "That was when you were trying to fight us. You were a threat."

"Please, most of the times I saw you all I did to you was run away."

Pearl sighed. "Maybe we should have been less aggressive. But it's different now. As long as you want to help the Crystal Gems, you'll be welcome."

Peridot looked up at Pearl. "Really?"

Pearl smiled. "Really."


End file.
